On this page

• Text (3)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    halcyon calms , have an unfair effect in lowering the appreciation of this malady considered as a trial of fortitude and patience . No stronger expression of its intensity and scorching fierceness can . be imagined than this fact—that within my private knowledge , two persons wlioliad suffered alike under toothache and cancer , have pronounced the former to be , on the scale of torture , by many degrees the worse . In t > oth , there are at times what surgeons call " lancinating" pangs—keen , glancing . , arrowy radiations of anguish ; and upon these the basis of comparison was rested—paroxysm , against paroxysm—with the result that I Have stated . The rack could not be more tbrillingly described ; yet note how eloquent tlie passage really is , and how felicitous the language , if we abstract the toothache ( painful enough , in all conscience ) and consider some more formidable pain . Hearken also to the roll of this :- — What was it that did in reality make me an opium-eater ? That affection which , finally drove me into the habitiud use of cpium , what was it ? Pain was it ? INTo ' but misery . Casual overcasting of sunshine was it ? I ^ o , but blank desolation " Gloom was it that might have departed ? No , but settled and

    abidingdarkness" Total eclipse , Without all hope of day !" Yet whence derived ? Caused by what ? Caused , as I might truly plead , by vouthful distresses in London ; were it not that these distresses were due , in their ultimate origin , to my own unpardonable foll y ; and to that folly-1 trace many ruins . Oh spirit of merciful interpretation , angel of forgiveness to youth and its aberrations , that hearkenest for ever as if to some sweet choir of far-off female intercessions ! will ye , choir that intercede—wilt thou , angel that forgivest—join together and charm away that mighty j ) hantdm , bora amidst the gathering mists ofremorse , which strides after me in j ? ursui ( from forgotten dags—towering for ever into proportions more and more colossal , overhanging and overshadowing my head as if close behind , yet dating its nativity from tours that are . find by more than half a century f Oh heavens ! that it should be possible for a child not seventeen years old , by a . momentary blindness , by listening to a false , false . whisper from his . own bewildered heart , b 3 ' one erring step , by a motion this way or that , to change the currents of his destiny , to poison the fountains of his peace , and in the twinkling of an eye to lay the foundations of a lifelong repentance !

    What a passage ^ is that depicting the dying parent " when tlie faces of his children are disappearing amongst the -vapours of death ! ' or the-wellknown apostrophe to "¦ Oxford-street ' ,. the stony-hearted stepmother ; or this description of the ball-rboni of the Inn where , he sat waiting the coach which was to convey him to London : — The unusual dimensions of the rooms , especially their towering height , brought up continually and obstinately , through natural links of associated feelings or images , the mighty vision of London waiting fur me afar off . An altitude of nineteen or twenty feet showed itself unavoidably upon an exaggerated scale in some of the smaller side-rooms—meant probably for cards or for refreshments . This single feature of the rooms—their unusual altitude , and the echoing hollowness Avhich had become the exponent of that altitude—this one terrific feature ( for terrific it was in . the effect ) , together with crow-ding : and evanescent images of the flying feet that so often had spread gladness through tlieic halls on the wings of youth and hope at seasons when every rooni rang with music—all this , rising in tumultuous vision , whilst the dead

    hours of night were stealing along , all around me—household and town—sleeping , and whilst against the windows more and more the storm outside was raving , and to all appearance endlessly growing , threw me into the deadliest condition of nervous emotion under contradictory forces , high over which predominated horror recoiling from that unfathomc-d abyss in London into which "I was now so wilfully precipitating myself . Often I looked out and examined the night . Wild it was beyond all description , and dark as "the inside of a wolf ' s throat . " But at intervals , when the wind , shifting continually , swept in such a direction as to clear away the vast curtain of vapour , the stars shone out , though with a light unusually dim and distant . Still , as I turned inwards to the echoing chambers , or outwards to the wild , wild night , I saw London expanding her visionary gates to receive nie , like some dreadful mouth of Acheron { Aeherontis avari ); Thou also , Whispering Gallery ! once again in those moments of conscious and wilful desolation , didst to my ear utter monitorial sighs . For once again I was preparing to utter an irrevocable word , to enter upon one of those fatally tortuous paths of which the windings can never be unlinked .

    Even when he has to translate a Latin quotation he cannot do so simply , but seems . forced by the necessities of his intensely active intellect to embellish the original , as in the well-known

    Quicquid ngunt homines , votum , timor , ira , voluptas Gaudhi , discursus , whieh he renders , " All that is done by mun—movements of prayer , panic , wrath , revels of the voluptuous , festivals of triumph , or jrladiatorshin of the intellect . " ¦ * Among the many passages wo had marked for extract we can only find room for this one more , and we quote it for the justness of the remark , and the caution it suggests against too closely interpreting the expressions oi uncultivated people ; it . is in explanation of the harsh and uncivil phrases often coining from uneducated persons , because their want of education has prevented their having an adequate command of language : —• They use phrases much stronger , than naturally belong to their thoughts and meaning , simply because the narrowness of their vocabulary oftentimes suggests to their embarrassed choice no variation oi' expression wearing a character less offensive .

    Untitled Article

    THE CAMBRIDGE ESSAYS . Cambridge Essays , contributed by Members of the University . 1856 . J . W . Parker and Son . The success of this scheme of annual publication on the part of Oxford and Cambridge men has been greater than we had anticipated ; and as , to use Jules Janin ' s witticism , rien no rcussit comme la succes , wo may expect better and better essays from members of the Universities . The present volume is various and interesting . It opens with a paper on " Roman Law and Legal Education which we leave to legists and educators , not understanding mores of that abstruse subject , the Law , than is requisite to keep us at as remote a distance from it as may be . The second essay is by Dr . Donaldson , and is on " English Ethnography , " an erudite and \ cvy curious examination of the influence of-vamous races on the English language . The very old and much debated question of classical instruction is taken up by Mr . John Grote in " Old Studies and New , ' an essay which not only exhibits independent thought , but contains a really wise and calm exposition of the pros and cons most worth attending to in the debate . The most interesting essay , to our tastes , is that of Mr . Cope on the love of the Picturesque among the Greeks , "in . which

    Untitled Article

    3 . The character of the laws of a community forms an important element in the progress of civilization . 4 . It is with the beginning of communities as with the beginning of organic life . 5 . Our national greattiess is more the result of production than of inheritance . 6 . The emotions arising from the external objects perceptible by the senses * are mutable and fleeting impressions . "We have selected six specimens , and might select a thousand , similarly limpid ; - but these form one class of Mr . Wade ' s materials , and fill an ample space . The rest is indolently taken down from , the lower shelves of the

    library— Hallam , Macaulay , Xingard , the transactions of two or three societies , a few recent memoirs , and some other works , accessible to every reader . Among the most frequently consulted are , The Pictorial History of England , and sundry books compiled by the author himself . Not a ^ limpse of original research , of far-extending studies , of rare or curious reading . The substance ; is as stale as the treatment is commonplace . And yet this dense volume is thrust upon us as an analytical history of British civilization the writer professing " to supply a deficiency in English literature , " and "in sufficient breadth of facts and philosophy to exemplify to the historical

    student or more elaborate inquirer the mystery of England ' s power , diversified interests , and resplendent name . " Why , the historical student will have read every book which Mr . Wade has quoted , and the elaborate inquirer will certainly be able to sound the shallows of his philosophy . The truth is , that he has produced an irregular abstract of history which he has called England' ' s Greatness , but which he might as well have called a $ ot an feu . He undertakes to instruct every one on every topic , from religion to literature , and from revolutions to gable ends and abutments . " Our love of the picturesque must not , however , transport ; -us into the mistake or extravagance of a popular lecturer whose idolatry extends to the adoration of the gable ends , narrow streets , andcyclopean abutments of the . middle a <* es . The picturesque is not the beautiful ; there is utility in one , veneration 3 association only in the other . The aged are often picturesque . " Observe that the

    " popular lecturer" thus -withered in three lines by Mr . John Wade , is Mr . John Ruskin . We are glad that Mr . Wade does not attempt to solve the education question , being saved by Iris reticence from the dull ed ^ e of a rust-eaten , platitude ; but what is the use of writing as follows , and not explaining it ?— - " The imperial spirit abroad has extended even to the great national universities ; they comprised hoarded sweets , and long and deeplycherished reminiscences . ' What sweets did the universities comprise ? Mr . Wade is gentle in periphrasis . Thieving and cheating , he says " indicate less of depravity than of a culpaWe mode of acquiring those objects which are in general request . " " The direct tendency of affluence is to give additional force and scope to the human passions , not only in a more rapid evolution of saints and philosophers , but of thieves and swindlers . " When did he learn that a rapid evolution of saints and philosophers was equivalent

    to an enlarged development of the passions ? And where are the " saints " who are now being so rapidly evolved ? Mr . Wade affirms that Pope could not now find materials for a Duriciad . We think he could . It is a pleasure to escape , from the sybiUme to the commonplace chapters of this stupendous pamphlet . Here , however , Mr . Wade is again at sea . He tells us , while we are waiting for a second Conference to interpret the Treaty of Paris , that "its purport is clearly and distinctly brought out . " He remarks on the " hopes of rest" bestowed on France by the Empire , and glides over the coup d ' etat by saying , " Louis Napoleon bore away the prize . " What has this to do with England ' s greatness ? Nothing ; bat it is n part of Mr . Wade ' s book , which contains , also , a deplorably foolish section on the great revolution in France . Here he rabidly declaims about Juggernaut , venomous plants , demons of terror , Molochs , bloody proscriptiomsts .

    and the exhausted parallel of liberty smd licence . There was a Yorkshire gentleman , as Mr . Wade well knows , who kept a diary of occurrences that interested him during the civil wars in England , and never once alluded to lloyalists , Roundheads , Cromwell , the King , or the Parliament , but talked of foxes , without ever mentioning a battle that happened on his own manor . There was also Charles Mathews , who never referred in his journal to the lleign of Terror , Marat , ltobespierre , or Napoleon Bonaparte . How merciful if some people would now leave the revolutions in England and Prance alone ! And Junius , too ! Junius would have been a small topic in this Cyclopean book had he not supplied Mr . Wade with an opportunity ; of glorifying himself . Accordingly , the glorification rattles on through pages , and the modest author quotes u the fifth edition of my work , " &e . &c . &c . This is the volume which Mr . Wade announces as a " national picture , " 11 a panoramic exhibition , " constructed upon carefully considered principles , in fulfilment of a mission to which he lays claim , consistently with tlie practices of the day . We cannot imagine to what class of readers Mr Wade ' s work will be useful . It is a compilation , distended , dull , and loaded with truisms disfigured into absurdities .

    ENGLAND'S GREATNESS . England ' * Greatness : its Jiise and Progress in Government , Laws , llcligion , and Social Life ; Agriculture , Commerce , and Manufactures , Science , Literature , and the Arts , from the Earliest Period to the Pe < ice of Paris . By John Wade . Longman and Co . The title-page of this volume , studded with heavy words , l'olls back like tho door of a prison . And within is discovered Mr . Wade and four hundred leaves of paper , thickly printed on both sides with Mr . Wade ' s ideas . " From the earliest period to the Peace of Paris 1 "—from original savagery t (» the GortaehakoU'jugglo—from the Druids to llr . Ruskin . The result is a nielon-liko rotundity of talk , which , if drained of its platitudes , would shrivel into a spectral fig . Chapter alter chapter opens with a herald ' s flourish , of philosophy—so that , whereas we arc intent upon the study of England ' s greatness , tho conviction is pressed upon us by slow degrees , that we are engaged in a general valuation of Mr . Wade ' s intellectual fixtures : — 1 . Tito Science of Civilization is varied and extensive . H . Tho origin of most conimunitios is necessarily obscure .

    Untitled Article

    ^ December 20 , 1856 . ] T H E LEADER . 1217

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 20, 1856, page 1217, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2172/page/17/